The Lover’s Crown

Ah! what else had I to do but love you?
I have made my choice,
     have lived my poems, and,
     though youth is gone in wasted days,
I have found the lover's crown of myrtle   
     better than the poet's crown of bays.
--Oscar Wilde (Flower of Love, 1881)

Oscar Wilde was an Irish author whose works included the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Earnest, among many others. However, it is perhaps his infamy for which he is best known. While at the height of popularity, Wilde was tried and convicted of a crime—loving the wrong kind of person. His punishment? Two years in prison, and the experience destroyed both his health and career. This makes his words from 14 years before the trial even more poignant: 

I have found the lover’s crown of myrtle better than the poet’s crown of bays.

These were not idle chatter or youthful boasting, but a declaration borne from experience. Even when the penalty is imprisonment or death, love is love is love.